The Canberra Editor July-September 2017

Nabob is a very rich or important person. Nabob would possibly not have been as common a word
as it is today (which, to be honest, is still not all that common), had it not been introduced in 1970
as part of an alliterative phrase by William Safire, acting as speechwriter for Vice-President Spiro
Agnew: ‘nattering nabobs of negativism’. The nabobs that Agnew and Safire were referring to
were the members of the press, which was a rather significant departure from the word’s original
meaning. Nabob was introduced into English at the beginning of the 17th century, taken from an
honorary title in the Mogul Empire of India. The provincial governors of this state had the Urdu title
of nawab, which was reported as nawbob in Robert Coverte’s 1612 A true and almost incredible report
of an Englishman that travelled by land throw many unknowne kingdoms.
Pundit means a person who gives opinions in an authoritative manner usually through mass media
or, alternatively, a critic. In India, pundit still means ‘a wise or learned man’. The original pundits
were highly respected teachers and leaders. Their title was taken from the Hindi word pandit, a
term of respect for a wise person that itself derives from the Sanskrit pandita, meaning ‘learned’.
English speakers began using the form pundit specifically to refer to those Hindu sages as long ago
as the 1600s. By the 1800s, they had also extended the term to refer to other sagacious individuals,
and now pundit is often used with a hint of sarcasm to refer to informed opinion makers such as
political commentators, financial analysts, and newspaper columnists who boldly share their views
on just about any subject that they believe lies within their expertise. Interesting extensions of
pundit are punditry and punditocracy.
Pyjamas (US spelling pajamas) defines a loose, usually two-piece lightweight suit used for sleeping
or lounging. Pyjamas comes from the Persian words pā-jāmah or pāy-jāmah for ‘leg’ (pā or pāy) and
‘garment’ (jāmah), literally a garment that can be put on feet-first. The ‘leg-garment’ sense of the
word’s etymology may be seen in its earliest use in English, the beginning of the 19th century, when
it first was used simply to mean ‘pants’. After Europeans living in Asia adopted the loose-fitting
pants, the word began to be for clothes that one slept in. Note the similarity between pā or pāy
and radical -ped- (Latin pes for foot) or -pod- or -podo- (Greek pous for foot) in pedestrian, pedicure,
pedal, centipede, quadruped, aliped, podal, podalgia, podium, and tripod. Jamah or jama, by itself,
is in current use in English and it means the cotton gown worn by Hindus. Pyjamas can be used as
singular in compounds such as pyjama clothes, pyjama coat, pyjama cord, pyjama dress, pyjama game,
pyjama jacket, pyjama leg, pyjama pants, pyjama suit, pyjama top, pyjama trousers, pyjama-clad, and
pyjama party. Note the 1957 hit comedy/musical film ‘The Pajama Game’ starring Doris Day. The
Macquarie Dictionary defines ‘the pyjama game’ as one-day cricket in a mildly derogatory sense.
Shampoo, as to wash (as the hair) with soap and water or with a special preparation, had a markedly
different meaning when it first entered the English language in the middle of the 18th century. It
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comes from the Hindi and Urdu cāpa, which is the imperative of cāpnā (to press, massage, knead),
and in its earliest use retained the meaning of ‘massage’. The meaning ‘to wash the hair of’ did not
enter common use until the middle of the 19th century.
SOURCES USED
Merriam-Webster Dictionary, Merriam-Webster Inc. 2017, viewed September 2017, https://www.
merriam-webster.com/
The Oxford English Dictionary, Oxford University Press 2017, viewed September 2017, http://www.oed.
com/
Online Etymology Dictionary, Douglas Harper 2017, viewed September 2017, http://etymonline.com/
index.php
Macquarie Dictionary 7th Edition, 2017
Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 5th Edition, 2002
11 July | September 2017 The Canberra editor